I stood before the podium with shaking hands. Exactly one million pairs of eyes stared up at me from the auditorium floor. There was no seating space, and so they all stood tightly packed against the stage trying to get as close to me as they could.

On the stage with me stood my beautiful blonde wife holding our triples, one of my first nonsense prophecies. The golden goddess will conceive with another woman, and bear the three saviors of our time. Now that they were here, and I loved them, I regretted the wording. Saviors were notorious for poor in endings, and I hadn’t written my religion with one any better than that of others.

I had shredded my holy book the night it had all become real.

A new copy stood on the podium before me.

I took a sip of water and cleared my voice to speak. I had rarely used it in the past few months for fear of its power. Now, I prayed to the Green Goddess, our holy mother whom I had never truly believed in during the church’s founding, that her curse would grant me a final blessing. It was the last hope I had.

“Brothers and sisters of Gaia,” I began, “I welcome you today, on the Day of Revelation, to celebrate the anniversary of our founding. It was two years ago today that I communed with our Great Green Mother and she warned me of the terrible days to come should we not change our ways. Climate change was upon us, and the world was in dire straits!

“Lo and behold, you have seen her miracles pass: the rise of Matriarch to power in the United States, the incarceration of those that harm our Dear Mother so, and the birth of her great saviors to name a few!” My heart clentched as I named the last one, but I made no outward move of pain. Instead, I took on a dramatic tone and continued.

“But still even more dire times were proclaimed to me! The three saviors shall face the dark ugliness in humanity as it continues to swell and engulf the world in chaos! At that time, our Mother Gaia shall welcome her children back into her arms and give share with us her Utopic Garden so that we may survive while the rest of our kind tears themselves apart!

“These things you know, because she revealed them to me on that dark night, and I recorded these revelations in our holy book, the Words of the Earth.” I forced myself to touch it’s cursed spine and hold it up to them. They all cheered, and I felt my stomach clench as tightly as my heart.

“What you do not know, my brothers and sisters,” I announced to break up their excitement, “is that these dark times were not the only path humanity might take.” As the words left my mouth, I could feel the agitation in the room. It was nothing, however, to the sudden drain I felt when whatever power I held to control fate began to course through me. A sort of divine echo began to vibrate through my words, and every word seemed to linger in the air like light.

“All mankind can be saved, if but one million true believers of the words of our Mother can be converted before the third Day of Revelation.” The power strained at my deadline, blurring my vision for my carefulness. “These one million believe will flow like water into the world, healing the darkness of humanity with their kindness and love of our Mother. The Saviors shall lead them, revered men and women that will teach the world to love and be happy, as they are loved and are happy.”

I could feel the extra cost of that last part as my heart began to stutter. It wasn’t just drain anymore. My consciousness was fizzling, and my insides clenched as if something had been ripped from them. I didn’t have much time before the prophecy took it’s complete payment, so I pressed on quickly.

“I s-stand before exactly one m-million believers today, as had been rev-vealed to me I would just last w-week, a small encouragement from our M-Mother that we w-will prevail. We will h-heal the h-hate in the w-wor-rld. We n-need not ah-aban-bandon-don i–” My tongue felt heavy and hard to move. My breath was labored and short.

“Do-do not ah-aband-don this w-worrrlllllld!” I screamed in desperation. “E-ev-ven-en as…..I go….to our-er Mother….do not….do not…” I couldn’t think any more. The rest of the speech I had prepared slipped from my mind as I fell to my knees. My wife rushed to my side, and one final thought washed over me as I stared up into her tear-streaked eyes. With my last breath I exhaled, “Bless me.” Her lips on my forehead was the last sensation I ever felt on that earthly plane. The power given to me in such a mysterious way dragged me from my body and away, and I could only hope that my gamble had worked.

Update Schedule

#TipTuesday, where I release helpful tips on writing;

#ThrowdownThursday, where I respond to a challenge thrown at me via my #ThrowdownThursday page every other week;

#PhotoPromptFriday, where I blog out a Photo Prompt, on weeks I don't do #ThrowdownThursday. A week later I will re-blog the best response to it (via either a tumblr note or submitted through the #PhotoPromptFriday page) as well as my own response, which I’ll already have done before hand.